Stewardship equals good business for New Ulm firm

When organizers of the Medical Center’s Heart Safe Communities initiative were determining the best locations to place automatic external defibrillators, sites that sprung to mind were schools, government buildings, social agencies and large businesses.

“The goal is to get AEDs out where the people are,” said Lori Burkhart, RN and coordinator of New Ulm Heart Safe Communities. “It’s like strategically placing fire extinguishers throughout a building, if someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest, an AED needs to be readily accessible.”

Although downtown New Ulm has no large businesses or areas where people congregate, residents should feel secure knowing that their needs are being looked after.

In an attempt to make one of the life-saving devices available to downtown patrons, New Ulm Telecom has purchased an AED. Bill Otis, president of New Ulm Telecom, and his management team felt it was very important to protect their employees and customers by placing an AED in their building on North Minnesota Street.

“We started asking ourselves where the device should be located and certainly our employees came to mind,” Otis said. “But when we started checking where the other AEDs were in the community, we learned that most of them were in the large plants, schools and government buildings. One question that arose was what if someone needed one at five minutes past 5 p.m., when most businesses and government locations are closed. We decided that placing an AED here would not only serve our employees, but any person walking down the street.”

New Ulm Telecom is open Monday from 7:30 to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 7:30 to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Burkhart said the firm’s action exemplifies the goal of the Heart Safe Communities program.

“It not only protects the employees and clients in their building, but neighboring businesses and pedestrians on the street,” Burkhart said. “They were looking at it as the neighborly thing to do.”

Beyond fulfilling a goal of the Heart Safe Communities program to saturate the community with AEDs, the act speaks to the firm’s own operating philosophy, said vice president Barbara Bornhoft.

“Our mission statement identifies the community as one of our stakeholders, in fact, last year one of our campaign mottos was, “We’re in it for you’,” Bornhoft said. “We’re really focused not only on our employees being our friends and neighbors, but our customers being people who we know, live next door to, go to church with and see on the street.”

Otis said the decision to purchase an AED to protect downtown patrons wasn’t even so much a conscious decision.

“In New Ulm, it’s just the way you go about business,” he said. “Since New Ulm is a relatively small town, our business is not a division of someone else. We’re independent. Our customers are our livelihood and they are also our neighbors and friends.

“Could we get by without the AED? Certainly. But we’re not necessarily all dollars and sense and bottom line, we want to do things because we are good stewards and because it’s the right thing to do.”

Hopefully New Ulm Telecom employees will never have to use their defibrillator, but having undergone the training has given staff members confidence that they could use the device if there is a need.

“We’re teaching those trained to jump and help if a need arises, regardless of where you are,” Burkhart said. “If you come upon a sudden cardiac arrest, you have been trained and know what to do. Be a good Samaritan.”

New Ulm Medical Center
1324 Fifth North Street
New Ulm, MN 56073
507-233-1000
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